Red Bulls Paper Revue: September 12, 2022

Tom Edwards settles in at Barnsley, Omar Sowe picks up an injury in Iceland, Anatole Abang scores in his latest league in this week’s links

Welcome to the Red Bulls Paper Revue presented by Once a Metro.

I wish I was in the art world. It seems cool. I don’t know the first thing about art, but it just seems cool.

Here’s this week’s top story.

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Did you happen to notice the starter at left back for RB Salzburg during the midweek Champions League fixture against AC Milan?

Why, it was Andreas Ulmer, the 36-year-old Austrian who has been at the club since 2009. He has made 532 total appearances, winning twelve Austrian Bundesliga and nine Austrian Cup titles. The captain is a cornerstone at Salzburg, providing the foundation of experience at what is arguably the most important position in the high press.

However, thirty-six is thirty-six and one wonders if there is any consideration in seeking an eventual replacement. I don’t know where Red Bull would find one. Do you know of any serviceable young left backs who are growing in prominence and drawing transfer interest from Europe?

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Little did Red Bulls fans know that when paying a fee to acquire Gerhard Struber, the deal included a player-to-be-named-later. Obviously, that’s not true, but karmically Tom Edwards landed in Barnsley. The English defender is making a solid impression alongside fellow Deadline Day signing Adam Phillips.

“Pato (coach Martin Paterson) has a really good connection with Tom from the Stoke connection,” manager Michael Duff told the Barnsley Chronicle. “They tick a lot of boxes for the club in terms of data, but, from my point of view, they are two solid characters with a little bit of experience. Tom has played in the Premier League, a lot in the Championship; he can play in two or three positions.”

The new signing was on the bench for last weekend’s League One match against Sheffield Wednesday. The manager notes that Edwards is experienced but has not played in over a month. He looks “bright in training,” but Barnsley is forced to “guess” because they “can’t get information out of New York.”

I wonder what that means! Oooooo, drama, drama, drama! A speculator might posit that after how that whole situation played out, the Red Bulls would rather self-immolate than aid Edwards’ career in any way, shape, or form.

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Here’s a story that was submitted by OaM Oakland bureau chief Juan Mesa.

In the past, Thiago Scuro has discussed the impact Red Bull Bragantino has made at the New York sister-club. The sporting director has aided in scouting, essential information sharing that can only be provided by umbrella ownership. He appeared on the Flow Sport Club podcast to discuss further.

“Today we have become a point of reference for the New York Red Bulls of the MLS,” said Scuro via our amigos at Territorio MLS. “Many players have been recruited by us here in Brazil. MLS found South America as its backyard. In recent years, the number of young people from Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil going there has increased. The league purposely changed that idea of ​​the player retiring, saw that that model was not going to progress and created several mechanisms to encourage clubs to invest in young people in development, and we [Red Bull’s Brazilian team] have been able to contribute a lot.”

The sporting directors of each Red Bull club meet “every 15 days,” discussing “players, coaching methods implemented [in training], and performance.” I wonder if they each have funny Zoom backgrounds for their chats. Someone should ask Denis Hamlett what he chooses.

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Omar Sowe suffered a hamstring sprain in a recent 4-0 win over Leiknir Reykjavík. The on-loan striker is expected to miss the next four weeks. Breiðablik is currently topping the Icelandic table as the league bisects into the Championship and Relegation playoff tiers to be contested over five rounds, with the 21-year-old assumed to return in Week Two.

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An intriguing player was briefly on the market.

A player by the name of Eliseu Manoel was released by Grêmio. He was competing with the club’s Under-20 team but did not have a professional contract, merely a professional deal through 2024. He is, of course, the brother of Elias, on loan from the Brazilian club through the end of the 2022 season with a $1.5 million purchase option.

Eliseu will return to Guarani, where both Manoel siblings began their careers. Perhaps if Elias sticks around New York long term, then his brother pops up at the club. Stranger things have happened, and the younger attacker has been described as the more talented player.

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Ashley Fletcher scored for Wigan Athletic… in a reserve-team match. The Latics fell to Cardiff City, 2-1. The former Red Bull tied the match in the 30th minute, looking to “gain vital minutes under [his] belt.”

Unfortunately, soccer players don’t wear belts, so I’m sure where those minutes are actually going to go – hopefully not to his hips, am I right?

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Wolfsberger AC is finally getting a real manager. At least, that’s what owner Dietmar Riegler reportedly said. Following the departure of Ferdinand Feldhofer, the club has decided to hire a “professional trainer.”

Of course, the most recent manager was pleased to hear that the ship is being righted after his March resignation. “That’s really great for the club,” Feldhofer told Kleine Zeitung while laughing. “After a long dry spell in sporting and economic terms under Christian Ilzer [now at Sturm Graz], Gerhard Struber, and myself, a professional worker is finally needed.”

Riegler, of course, once reportedly accused the New York manager of having a “weakness of character.” Austrian football drama is fun. Aren’t we having fun?

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You may be aware that RB Leipzig parted ways with Domenico Tedesco. The Italian took over the club following the departure of Jesse Marsch. Fussball News posited some potential replacements, a list that included Gerhard Struber, noting that “the industry thinks a lot of” him.

Leipzig went with a different but still familiar name, hiring Marco Rose, who won two Austrian Bundesliga titles in 2018 and 2019 before spells at Borussia Mönchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund.

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Don’t let Esbjerg get hot! The boys from Jutland took down HIK by a 4-0 margin in spicy Danish third division action. Mathias Jørgensen led the charge with two goals and an assist.

He looked pretty happy in the post-match highlights and interview package, which is nice.

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I have an update on Sébastien Le Toux. Please put down your tomato and let me finish.

The brief Red Bull is the head coach of the girls’ varsity soccer team at The Shipley School located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He previously worked with the junior varsity and middle school squads. The 38-year-old Frenchman was even profiled by the local news, which is neat.

Le Toux joined the Red Bulls in 2012, moving over from Vancouver. He was expected to bring a massive impact in what ended up being the final season of the Hans Backe tenure, a last gasp of the free-spending, cowboy front office claiming MLS Cup. ‘Twas not to be as the attacker rejoined his beloved Philadelphia Union the following winter.

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After being relegated from the Campeonato Brasileiro Série C last season, Oeste Futebol Clube is in some dire straits. Best known around these parts for being the former home of Fábio Gomes, their downfall may have been prevented by a cast infusion. Red Bull was interested in some form of takeover but was “refused” and instead moved onto the fairer shores of Bragantino, enjoying immediate domestic and continental success.

Following relegation, Oeste was shoved into the meat grinder that is Série D. Spots are given to dropouts from Série C and victors of state competitions, with zero spots guaranteed for next season. Falling in the Round of 32 to Caxias and failing to make noise in the Copa Paulista or the Campeonato Paulista, Rubrão (Big Red) will be without a national league for the first time in quite some time.

Life is a series of sliding doors.

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Al-Bataeh lost the second match in the UAE Pro League, falling to Al-Wasl by a 2-1 margin. Someone had to score the goal, and it was Anatole Abang. What a finish it was, a header finishing a play started by the Cameroonian striker.

Roll the clip.

I mean, that’s just great soccer at any level. Whatever Abang is doing in the Middle East is agreeing with him. He looks fast and sharp, impressively so.

If the Red Bulls signed the player in that highlight, supporters would be praising the move.

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Out of work since March, Juan Carlos Osorio is circling a new gig.

The former Red Bulls manager is in talks with Newell’s Old Boys that are said to be “very positive.” Despite coaching in quite a few locales, his résumé is yet to include a stop in Argentina. He has fierce competition in the form of Roberto Sensini, a former defender at the club and participant in three World Cups.

It must be nice to feel wanted.

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Every so often, a story comes along that makes me think “Yeah, that sounds accurate.”

Did you know that Hans Backe was late for a tactics meeting because he was busy playing the ponies? Christian Lønstrup was on a show and discussing the former Copenhagen manager, whose leisure time bled into his professional life. The story is very… him.

“We are going to play in Silkeborg and will go there the day before,” said Lønstrup. “But when the tactics meeting is about to start, Hans Backe still hasn’t turned out. “He has been betting on horse racing upstairs and has hit the winner in the first five races. The sixth and last has a close match between two horses, and if the right one wins, he would have won 24 million kroner. So, he couldn’t leave the TV screen, and it took six or seven minutes after the end of the race to decide which horse had won, so he came down bathed in sweat, but had to settle for DKK 18,000 in winnings.”

Backe now operates in a different area of the arena, enjoying a successful spell as a horse breeder. Gambling or not, he probably still sweats a lot. Those Swedes love their saunas.

Here’s a joke that was submitted by Nellie of Neptune.

“My husband didn’t gamble on horses; he preferred taking his chances on the cows at the pool hall.”

Thank you, Nellie. I’m sure they were just talking.

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Do you have a story you’d like to submit to the Paper Revue? Email us at bencorkOAM@gmail.com or send a DM to @Once_A_Metro on Twitter.